Another school day; soon I will finally enter the schedule and stop counting them.
Standard procedures with exercise and washing passed without problems, and as soon as I returned to our room, the guys were already quite awake; the alarm clock works wonders.
Breakfast in the Great Hall in friendly company was diluted with conversations about upcoming classes, along with classmates' impatience to return to club activities as soon as possible.
"And what clubs are there at Hogwarts generally?" I asked, concurrently surprising everyone with my enthusiasm regarding eating oatmeal with raisins.
"Well, not particularly many," Justin immediately shrugged, causing feigned indignation from the girls.
"Hey, what do you mean 'not many'?"
"Isn't that right, Hannah?"
"Of course! Besides clubs for each subject except Potions, there is a choir supervised by Professor Flitwick, there is a dance club, though only classics there. There is a chess club. Do you know about wizard chess?"
"Saw them playing in the common room," I nodded. "But didn't attach importance. And chess as such is known and understandable to me."
"Rules there are the same," Hannah nodded with a smile. "Only pieces are enchanted, animated. Especially fancy ones even have a behavioral model, sometimes very advanced. Naturally, chess sets come in different materials, different designs, and richness of the behavioral matrix."
"You speak so competently, one can listen endlessly," Ernie's friendly teasing caused no less friendly smile from Hannah in return.
"Remembers itself when you read descriptions in shop catalogs, examining pictures."
"Do they move themselves, or what?" I continued the topic of conversation, finishing juice from the glass.
"Well yes," the girl nodded. "They can if they consider the player too incompetent or not confident enough in himself. They can give advice, talk, plot all sorts of schemes."
"And there are also various handicrafts," slightly embarrassed Susan told inspiredly.
"Mention the Gobstones Club too," Ernie smirked.
"So what? I like doing things with my hands. Relaxes."
"Gobstones?" the ridiculous name caused legitimate curiosity in me.
"Ah," Justin waved it off. "Silly game, as for me."
"Now, now," Zacharias, not particularly participating in the conversation, was indignant. "It is an excellent game, and most importantly—useful."
"And smelly," the girls grimaced simultaneously.
"Stimulation for success," Zacharias nodded importantly. "My uncle adores Gobstones and can't stand Quidditch players."
"And what do you plan to do yourself?" I glanced at the guy.
"Quidditch, of course."
Zacharias's answer amused the guys, and having laughed, we grabbed our things and headed to the dungeons for the Potions lesson. Morning one. Were my colleagues outraged? Undoubtedly. Not by Potions themselves, but by the fact that due to Dementors classes are held together with Gryffindor as well, and Snape has some downright unhealthy reaction to them, and the lesson becomes tense and morally heavy; Snape flutters around students like a black raven, instilling apprehension with his very appearance. With their minds the guys understand that nothing threatens them except verbal scolding, but still worry and are afraid.
To the relief of many, Snape decided not to demonstrate his bad temper in the morning; recipe on the board, references to useful material in the textbook and additional literature there too, which, surprisingly, almost no one had. That's it; brew.
What could be simpler than preparing ingredients according to instructions, and with its help throwing these ingredients into the cauldron, performing all necessary actions? Undoubtedly, this is not very difficult, although it requires attentiveness and concentration; precisely these I demonstrated, cutting, crushing, and pressing various roots, leaves, skins, and other innards. But even in such a simple matter, there were those who either would not cope, or intentionally spoil everything, and it doesn't matter whether for the sake of experiment or prank.
"This is unbearable..." Daphne grumbled on the edge of audibility, looking at the ingredients received from my hands.
"Very bad?"
"Better than average, but not enough."
I understand why it is extremely desirable to brew a potion together; alone you simply won't have enough time to linearly, in order, prepare ingredients, and then brew the potion. Can do in parallel, but here much more experience is needed.
"I haven't figured out yet how to practice potions not in class."
"Conversations, Mr. Granger," Snape's quiet voice rang out from the side, moving around the class like a silent shadow.
Naturally, I decided not to provoke him; a senseless occupation, and therefore returned to quiet and measured preparation of ingredients, which no less quiet and calm Daphne used for the potion.
"Should turn out magnificent," she nodded, looking at the quietly bubbling sludge.
"Longbottom!" Snape's quiet but harsh voice attracted the attention of the majority of students. "It seems even Miss Granger's vigilant control over your actions is not capable of correcting your phenomenal ability. Ability to turn a decent-looking potion into a substance of mass destruction with one deft movement."
Waving his wand, Snape cleaned Longbottom's cauldron of contents that began to show suspicious activity, trying to get out of this very cauldron and crawl far away.
"Mr. Finnigan," having walked just a couple of steps, Snape found something else to find fault with. "Why do I see you at the cauldron, and not at the cutting board?"
Seamus Finnigan, I think that is the name of this young Irishman with short and somewhat unruly chestnut hair. He looked at the professor with indignation.
"It seems, Mr. Finnigan, I clearly made it understood that you should not even approach the cauldron in the active phase of preparation. What part of the phrase 'do not approach the cauldron' eludes your understanding?"
"None, sir."
"Then step away from it before you blow up half the class. And by the next lesson, Mr. Finnigan, I would like to see on my desk one standard large scroll with a detailed description of all stages of preparation of today's potion, with disclosure of nuances of heat treatment."
Snape headed further, leaving discontentedly grumbling students behind his back. But no one noticed that not a single point had been taken yet. Here Snape reached us again, bent over the cauldron, sniffed, looked closely.
"It seems, Miss Greengrass, even such an assistant, who literally only yesterday saw a cauldron along with ingredients, is capable of raising the bar of your final product."
Nodding with satisfaction, the professor headed further, looking for what to find fault with, leaving us to "suffer" over the almost ready potion.
"No, Greengrass, there is definitely a conflict here."
The girl tried for a brief moment to burn a hole in me with a severe gaze of blue eyes, which should have discouraged me from annoying her, but did not achieve its goal.
"What makes you think so?"
"His phrase can be understood in two ways," I smiled slightly, starting to clean knives and other tools. "I don't think a person capable of subtle barbs and verified phrases can allow accidental double interpretation in his speech."
"And what, in your opinion, did he mean?" Daphne asked with interest, controlling the process of finishing the potion brewing.
"In his phrase, the question shines through: 'And what were you, Miss, doing these years, that the help of an absolute novice is capable of greatly raising the quality of your work? Maybe you are not so talented after all?'"
"Hmm," Daphne proudly turned up her nose. "You won't just back off, will you?"
"I didn't intend to annoy. Just one of the topics to maintain the thread of dialogue. But I won't refuse to listen either if you decide to tell."
"Well, there is no secret or intrigue here. While a teacher works at Hogwarts, and especially with the title of Master, he can take a personal apprentice, but completely free of charge. This is compensated by the school and the Ministry, saying, young talent increases prestige, rating, international authority of the school, and this is all important. The country where the best school by the results of the year is located, as well as the school itself, receive subsidies from the ICW."